European storage facilities are filling up, Spain's are already full. Czech Republic has 6% capacity left

European natural gas storage facilities are currently 93% full, while those in Spain and Portugal are already completely filled, according to GIE data. Czech storage facilities have approximately 6% of their capacity remaining before they are full. Full storage facilities are a positive signal for wholesale gas prices. 

The European Union has met its gas storage filling target well ahead of schedule, having set it following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the substantial reduction in Russian gas flows to Europe. Under the target, European storage facilities are to be at least 90% full by the start of the heating season, i.e. by 1 November 2023.

Earlier achievement of the target has been helped mainly by significantly higher imports of liquefied natural gas and continued lower gas consumption in Europe. By the beginning of September, approximately 95 bcm of natural gas had already been imported into Europe (compared with approximately 88 bcm over the same period last year).

European gas storage facilities have reached record filling levels also thanks to a substantially better starting position than in previous years. This year, their filling level has never fallen below 55%, whereas a year earlier it was up to 30% lower at the same time. The exceptionally high storage levels at the start of the injection season were aided in particular by the very mild winter, when natural gas was even being injected into storage facilities during last Christmas.

If the current rate of natural gas injection into storage facilities continues, storage facilities across the European Union will be full before the start of the heating season. This would undoubtedly be a positive factor for wholesale gas prices.

So far, Spain and Portugal are the only countries with completely full storage facilities. The two countries on the Iberian Peninsula have a total of seven LNG terminals, with Spain's liquefied natural gas terminals having the highest capacity among European Union countries.

However, it should be noted that both Spain and Portugal have only limited gas storage capacity. While storage capacity in Spain covers only 10% of total gas consumption (and only 3% in Portugal), it covers as much as 47% in the Czech Republic.

Gas storage facilities in the Czech Republic are filling up in a similar manner. They are currently approximately 94% full.